District 9 Director Sets Up New SF Film

Neill Blomkamp promises a "commercial” but "singular”, and he’s also getting a budget hike

Although nobody’s saying what it’ll be about, the next film from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is definitely going to be SF, according to Variety .

Production company Media Rights Capital is going to produce the project which will begin production by the middle of next year, with Bill Block producing. Block is chief executive of QED, the company that was first to commit funding to District 9 before Sony's Worldwide Acquisitions Group acquired the film based on a Blomkamp-created graphic novel. MRC committed to the new project on the basis of Blomkamp's pitch and is promising to give Blomkamp and Block creative freedom over the final film.

"MRC is letting me make the film I want to make, and that is by far the most important thing here," says Blomkamp. "The film will hopefully be commercial, but it is very much a singular film, that comes directly from me."

The film is expected to have a moderate budget, but considerably more the the $30 million District 9 cost to make.